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One Night Adventure at Sea

My Senior High friend whose name’s Ning is a daughter of a fisherman. I often visited her family on the weekend. No public transportation operated to Ning’s village, except ojeg, motorcycle for passenger service. If we took ojeg there, it would cost very expensive because it was very far. We couldn’t afford it because we were very poor at that time. In a month, it was good if we didn’t make any loan at all. Therefore we went on foot to reach Ning’s house. We walked together with many friends in great pleasure so that the far distance felt near. The tiredness would just be felt in the night.

Ning’s house was very simple. It located across a river which is not far from the estuary of the sea. It was a beautiful afternoon when we had just arrived, I saw Ning’s father with her three sons was making preparation to go to the sea. They offered me to join them. Without thinking it over, I directly said ‘yes’ to accept it. I wanted to experience the sensation of adventure in the night at sea. Cause I had never done it before.

It was exactly 5pm when our team which consisted of Ning’s parents, her three brothers, Ning herself, and me, with great pleasure started to go. We had decided to stay over night at sea. We would sleep in fishing platform, a small house at the sea which is used by the fisherman to trap fish. I was very happy because it’s the first time for me going along a river which flows to the estuary of the sea. We saw mangrove at the left and the right side of the river. Some monkeys hung and jumped here and there from one branch of the mangrove to the others. They looked very joyful as if they said, “welcome to my paradise.”

After passing the brownish watered river, the boat started to enter the green color zone of the sea as the sign that the sea is still shallow. I touched the water happily; I played it till we got the blue zone; and the very beautiful natural painting as the creation of the Almighty was stretched unlimited in front of us. It represented the majesty of its Creator. The sea wind blew fast, the cold came to each part of my body. When we got into the fishing platform, the black nuance had covered the universe. Ning’s father stopped the machine of the boat, and my great adventure was started.

Sea Adventure

The boat shook violently; it was blown by the wind and wave. In such terrifying condition, we had to jump to the pole of the fishing platform one by one. For Ning’s family , it’s surely an ordinary matter but for me it’s a great one. I imagined if I failed to jump, slipped and fell to the sea; I would surely die sinking into the giant water, the deep sea, for I couldn’t swim at all. Or if I was unlucky, one of my feet was hemmed between the pole and the boat side, … oh I couldn’t imagine. I was stressful, scared and hesitate. But it was impossible for me to stay alone on the boat, if it was upside down, then I would die too. It was really dilemma for the one who didn’t have enough bravery like me. It’s a nightmare. In my heavy struggle to jump into the fishing platform, I could hear all people there supported me. They said that I certainly could do it. I kept on praying and gathering my bravery. And finally, yessss …. I was successful jumping into the fishing platform safely.

When we got there, Ning’s father soon lighted the lantern. Then the curly haired-man and his sons jumped into the sea, swam and set the net to trap the fish. They didn’t care the chill sea water with its wave, all just for the coming and gathering the fish which were interested in the light of the lantern.

While waiting for the trapped fish, we chatted and did many things. One moment which gave me very deep impression was that we cooked squids used only sea water as the seasoning. We cooked them on the lantern. In such condition, the squids which were cooked with very minimalist seasoning, only sea water, were eaten out. They were very delicious. In fact, togetherness is very a beautiful moment, ever after.

The later the night the much colder the weather was. It came into my every single bone; it’s really chill and I got difficulty to breath. The medicine which I consumed gave no effect to over come the cold. I almost couldn’t breath and my nose was plugged. It was really painful. Though I had tried all my energy to close my eyes to sleep, still I couldn’t because breathing was really heavy struggle for me that night. And suddenly my stomach was queasy, I wanted to vomit. Then I vomited out all I could, till nothing left in my stomach. I was sleepless all night.

In such condition, suddenly came a very terrifying thought to my mind. How if the fast wind and the great wave broke the fishing platform then we all sank into the deep sea? I couldn’t swim then I would surely die. I wasn’t able to prevent my mind to think about death, the case which every life creature will face, which is very terrifying and frightening for every one. I was scared because of many cases such as: I had very much sin and hadn’t asked the forgiveness from God Almighty; I hadn’t paid my debt for having no money to pay; many promises which hadn’t been fulfilled; and all the consequences of death. Let me tell you friends … it’s really terrifying, standing on a spot where the threat of death is very close and we have almost no preparation to face. Almost no body is ready to die I think.

In the morning I got worse because whatever I ate to cure the hunger and supply the energy was always vomited. The trip to return home was the most difficult episode from the series of my one night adventure at sea. Our boat stopped running because there was something wrong with the machine. The sea wave which for Ning’s family was just an ordinary matter but for me it was an extra ordinary one. It shook the boat and my stomach violently; I kept on vomiting though nothing was out. I had never got such great physical suffering all my life before. For me, seasick is the top of the physical suffering; much more painful than carsick. If one gets carsick, he is still able to stop the car, take a rest and look for medicine to cure. But at sea, where to stop and to take a rest?

But friends, my one night adventure at sea was able to raise my empathy to the profession of fishermen which I never cared before. Their struggle in earning their lives is really hard. As a weak and brittle creature, for even only one night accompanied them at sea, I couldn’t at all. I was very shy because I often complained about my hard and painful life. Since then, I can see that there are still many other people who in fact have worse quality of lives than me. Moreover I got very deep impression about the song which was composed to appreciate the fishermen.

Here is the translation, more or less:
There won’t be delicious fish on the dining table, without the hard work of fishermen. Fish is the source of high quality nutrition. It’s needed by all people. Every night, they roamed at sea. Wave and storm intercept and attack. The fishermen are never fear in his duty for us who need food. Thank you, Mr. Fishermen.

Sorry if the translation of the song is not good enough for I’m not a professional translator yet. I really appreciate the composer who are aware the importance of the profession of fisherman for human being. But once again sorry to say for I haven’t got the name of the composer whose song is often sung by me to lull to sleep my handsome little nephews, M.Rizky Wahyu Nugroho and Irsyad Fadly Abdurrahman. For those who know his/her name, please tell me. Thank you.